


Green

by Dira Sudis (dsudis)



Category: Bones
Genre: Community: bones_flashfic, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-11
Updated: 2010-01-11
Packaged: 2017-10-06 04:34:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/49705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dsudis/pseuds/Dira%20Sudis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><em>Zack had hoped to get further than his second day at the Jeffersonian before an emergency arose.</em></p>
            </blockquote>





	Green

**Author's Note:**

> This story was first posted April 2, 2007.

"Hey!"

Zack ducked his head, shrugging to resettle his backpack and shoving his hands into his pockets. He let himself walk just a little faster. He didn't run. Running didn't work.

"_Hey!_"

He just had to get inside; he was more than an hour early, and he'd stashed some clothes in his locker in case of emergencies. He'd hoped to get further than his second day at the Jeffersonian before an emergency arose, but it somehow didn't surprise Zack that he hadn't.

"Dammit--kid! Wake'n'Bake!"

A hand caught Zack's shoulder, spinning him around, and Zack lifted his chin. Dr. Hodgins--_just call me Hodgins, kid, doctorates are a dime a dozen around here_, which meant Hodgins had two and a half cents' worth--was glaring at him.

"What the hell is your name?"

"Zack," Zack said firmly. "Zack Addy."

"Z to A, right, I knew that. Look, Zack, this isn't _college_, you can't show up _high_ on the second day."

Zack gritted his teeth. "Do I seem intoxicated to you, Dr. Hodgins?"

Hodgins' frown deepened. "You _smell_ high," he muttered, but he was looking into Zack's eyes, which Zack knew perfectly well weren't bloodshot or dilated.

"What the hell is going on, then?"

Zack shrugged stiffly. "I'm staying at the youth hostel down on--"

Hodgins let go of him with a look of distaste, holding his hand away from himself as if he wanted to disinfect it before it touched anything else. "They're _paying_ you to work here, Zack, you understand that, right?"

"The Jeffersonian is _going_ to pay me to be Dr. Brennan's student," Zack corrected. "For the next two weeks, my budget is fairly limited."

"Three weeks," Hodgins corrected, frowning. "Maybe five, the way paperwork... you can't stay in that hostel for a _month_, Zack. You can't keep showing up smelling like you're living at a Phish concert."

Zack blinked. He hadn't noticed any seafood smell. "A fish...?"

Hodgins rolled his eyes. "You need a shower. And an internet connection, apparently. Do they have the internet in Wisconsin?"

"Michigan," Zack corrected impatiently, raising his right hand and waggling his fingers. "It's the one shaped like a mitten. And I was going to take a shower before you interrupted me. There's a shower in the lab. I have clothes in there."

"Yeah, there are also _people_ in the lab. Dr. Goodman, for one."

Zack winced. He'd been hoping he was early enough...

Hodgins shook his head. "He's _always_ in early if you're trying to get in earlier, and he's not going to look kindly on anybody walking in smelling like you do. You'll be fired before you have time to miss a cultural reference."

Zack couldn't leave Washington with _another_ doctorate half-finished; his mother would never let him live it down. "So what do I do?"

Hodgins looked down at his own hand and then sighed and dropped it, seeming to accept his state of contamination. He slung his other arm around Zack's shoulders and turned him around. "Come on, my gym's a few blocks from here. I can get you in, and they'll wash your clothes while you get cleaned up."

Zack blinked. He'd known you could get all kinds of services in big cities--he wasn't a _hick_\--but this still seemed above and beyond. "They do that?"

"They do when I tell them to," Hodgins muttered, tugging Zack into motion. Louder, he said, "I guess you're going to need a place to stay for a while, too."

Zack dismissed Hodgins' sotto voce remark and refocused on the larger problem. "Yes, I suppose I will. Do you know of anywhere inexpensive? And clean?"

"I have a spare room," Hodgins sighed. "And a philanthropic streak, God help me."


End file.
